Van Halen
Van Halen is a hard rock band from Pasadena, CA, formed in 1972 as Mammoth. The band's name was changed to Van Halen in 1974, and their first record was released in 1978. Following Aerosmith and Metallica, they are the third band to have [[Guitar Hero: Van Halen|their own Guitar Hero title]]. Band members Current * David Lee Roth: lead vocals (1972-85, 1996, 2006-present) * Eddie Van Halen: guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1972-present) * Wolfgang Van Halen: bass, backing vocals (2006-present) * Alex Van Halen: drums, percussion (1972-present) Past members * Michael Anthony: bass, backing vocals (1974-2006) * Sammy Hagar (formerly from Montrose): lead vocals (1985-96, 2003-2005) * Gary Cherone (formerly from Extreme): lead vocals (1996-99) Discography Studio albums * Van Halen (1978) ** Only two tracks from this album are absent from Guitar Hero: Van Halen: "Little Dreamer" and "On Fire". ** Tracklist: "Runnin' with the Devil", "Eruption", "You Really Got Me", "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", "I'm the One", "Jamie's Cryin'", "Atomic Punk", "Feel Your Love Tonight", "Little Dreamer", "Ice Cream Man" and "On Fire". ** Instrumental track: "Eruption" * Van Halen II (1979) ** This album gave the band their first US Top 20 Hit, "Dance the Night Away" (#15). ** Tracklist: "You're No Good", "Dance the Night Away", "Somebody Get Me a Doctor", "Bottoms Up!", "Outta Love Again", "Light Up the Sky", "Spanish Fly", "D.O.A.", "Women in Love..." and "Beautiful Girls". ** Instrumental track: "Spanish Fly" * Women and Children First (1980) ** Tracklist: "And the Cradle Will Rock...", "Everybody Wants Some!!", "Fools", "Romeo Delight", "Tora! Tora!", "Loss of Control", "Take Your Whiskey Home", "Could This Be Magic?" and "In a Simple Rhyme". * Fair Warning (1981) ** Tracklist: "Mean Street", "Dirty Movies", "Sinner's Swing!", "Hear About It Later", "Unchained", "Push Comes to Shove", "So This Is Love?", "Sunday Afternoon in the Park" and "One Foot Out the Door". ** Instrumental track: "Sunday Afternoon in the Park" * Diver Down (1982) ** Tracklist: "Where Have All the Good Times Gone!", "Hang 'Em High", "Cathedral", "Secrets", "Intruder/(Oh) Pretty Woman", "Dancing in the Street", "Little Guitars", "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)", "The Full Bug" and "Happy Trails". ** Instrumental track: "Cathedral" * 1984 (1984) ** Last recording with David Lee Roth until his return. ** "Jump", from this album, was their first Billboard #1. ** Tracklist: "1984", "Jump", "Panama", "Top Jimmy", "Drop Dead Legs", "Hot for Teacher", "I'll Wait", "Girl Gone Bad" and "House of Pain". ** Instrumental track: "1984" (which was a synth solo rather than a guitar solo) * 5150 (1986) ** First recording with Sammy Hagar. ** Tracklist: "Good Enough", "Why Can't This Be Love?", "Get Up", "Dreams", "Summer Nights", "Best of Both Worlds", "Love Walks In", "5150" and "Inside". * OU812 (1988) ** Tracklist: "Mine All Mine", "When It's Love", "A.F.U. (Naturally Wired)", "Cabo Wabo", "Source of Infection", "Feels So Good", "Finish What Ya Started", "Black and Blue", "Sucker in a 3-Piece" and "A Apolitical Blues". * For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) ** Tracklist: "Poundcake", "Judgment Day", "Spanked", "Runaround", "Pleasuredome", "In 'n' Out", "Man on a Mission", "The Dream Is Over", "Right Now", "316" and "Top of the World". ** Instrumental track: "316" * Balance (1995) ** Final recording with Sammy Hagar. ** The song "Baluchitherium" does not appear in the vinyl version of the album. ** Tracklist: "The Seventh Seal", "Can't Stop Lovin' You", "Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do)", "Amsterdam", "Big Fat Money", "Strung Out", "Not Enough", "Aftershock", "Doin' Time", "Baluchitherium", "Take Me Back (Déjà Vu)" and "Feelin'". ** Instrumental tracks: "Strung Out", "Baluchitherium" and "Doin' Time" (which is a drum solo). * Van Halen III (1998) ** Only album recorded with Gary Cherone. ** Final studio album recorded with Michael Anthony. ** Tracklist: "Neworld", "Without You", "One I Want", "From Afar", "Dirty Water Dog", "Once", "Fire in the Hole", "Josephina", "Year to the Day", "Primary", "Ballot or the Bullet" and "How Many Say I". ** Instrumental tracks: "Neworld" and "Primary". * A Different Kind of Truth (2012) ** First album since Roth's return. ** First studio recording with Wolfgang van Halen. ** Tracklist: "Tattoo", "She's the Woman", "You and Your Blues", "Chinatown", "Blood and Fire", "Bullethead", "As Is", "Honeybabysweetiedoll", "The Trouble with Never", "Outta Space", "Stay Frosty", "Big River" and "Beats Workin'". Compilation albums * Best of Volume I ''(1996) ** David Lee Roth rejoined the band and recorded two new songs for this album ("Can't Get This Stuff No More" and "Me Wise Magic"), before being replaced by Gary Cherone after a controversy surrounding their appearance in that year's edition of MTV Video Music Awards. * ''The Best of Both Worlds ''(2002) ** Titled after a song from ''5150, "Best of Both Worlds" (no the in the song's title). ** A poster of this album appears in the Recording Studio in Guitar Hero World Tour. Live albums * Live: Right Here, Right Now ''(1993) * ''Live Without a Net ''(video only, 2004) ** Recorded at a 1986 gig in New Haven, Connecticut. ** There are no official live recordings with David Lee Roth as vocalist; in both occasions, the band was fronted by Sammy Hagar. * ''Tokyo Dome: Live in Concert (2015) ** It is the first album to feature David Lee Roth and Wolfgang Van Halen on a live album Trivia * In Van Halen's early days as Mammoth, Alex was the guitarist, while Eddie was the drummer. They swapped instruments after Eddie discovered that Alex played his drumkit while he was away delivering newspapers. Eddie's only response was to pick up Alex's guitar. * Even though Van Halen is named after the core musician brothers, it was David Lee Roth who was credited with coining the name. * Eddie and Alex's father, Jan van Halen, had played with the band once: he played clarinet on their song "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)", from Diver Down. He too was a musician, and was the one responsible for introducing his sons to music. * Eddie and Alex are of half-Indonesian descent; their mother, Eugenia, hailed from that country. * The instrumental track "316", from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, was titled after Wolfgang's birth date, March 16 (at the time of the album's recording, Wolf had yet to be born). * During his tenure with Van Halen, Sammy Hagar only agreed to sing three of Van Halen's past hits with Roth: "Jump", "Panama" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" (not counting "You Really Got Me", since the song is not a Van Halen original). The rest of the setlist, Hagar-era songs aside, was made up of Hagar's own solo career hits (such as "I Can't Drive 55" and "Give to Live") and assorted covers ("You Really Got Me" included). Likewise, since his return, Roth has never sung any of the Van Halen songs recorded by Hagar (of which Roth was somewhat critical for them being too mellow for the style he was used to); this is a plausible reason why no Hagar-era songs are featured in Guitar Hero: Van Halen, even though the band members themselves deny this. * In Van Halen's early gigs, Eddie used to play his solos with his back turned to the audience, so that they would not copy his then-newly devised guitar tapping technique, even though the technique was already in use by musicians like Queen's Brian May. * After leaving Van Halen, Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony formed a new rock band, Chickenfoot, with Joe Satriani on guitar and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on drums. External Links * Van Halen's official site * Van Halen's article on Wikipedia * Van Halen on allmusic Category:Bands Category:Guitar Hero: Van Halen